Narain, tell us how HRT has changed in the last six months. How much has it changed and developed?

Narain Karthikeyan: Yeah, I think we've come a long way since Australia and the team has a permanent facility now and the factory is very impressive. Everything has come under one roof. There's a design office, we're hiring a lot of people and the car is getting slightly better. It's a positive step and hopefully this will continue throughout the season. We have some upgrades coming during the holidays and hopefully we'll start using them soon and close the gap. The car at the moment is similar to the Marussia, but we can improve still a little bit and that's what we are planning to do.

It's an unfortunate fact that you do see a lot of blue flags in your position. Tell us how difficult it is from that point of view, and how much your race is compromised by that? How much do you have to race in the first quarter of the race?

NK: Yes, that part where you don't have the blue flags in the first of the race is where you try and do what you can and push. But after that, yes, once the blue starts coming you have to go offline sometimes and you pick up lots of marbles and after that it's managing the tyres and so on. It's quite difficult for us but we try to stay out of the way of the leaders.

Kamui, your best performance in Hockenheim: in fact a fantastic performance from both Sauber cars. Have you sorted out the problems you had in the past few races?

Kamui Kobayashi: I think it's not really a big problem. It's basically that we had speed everywhere but unfortunately we missed some piece of the puzzle and we could not compete at the end of the weekend, in the race. We believe we had a really good car and had good performance but we just need to piece together all the puzzle. Yeah, I think otherwise we are not worried about our pace. For sure it's not the best of the car but for sure we can fight for good positions.

Is there a problem with qualifying? If you started further up perhaps you could be a winner?

KK: Definitely. In Hockenheim I had quite good confidence in the dry but unfortunately in the wet, especially on the inter tyre in that situation in Hockenheim qualifying, we struggled a lot to warm them up. I think a lot of drivers struggled but we struggled as well and that is the point – if it had been dry I think we could quite easily have found Q3 and then I think the race would have been completely different. This is what we need. Unfortunately in the last two races we had a wet qualifying and a little bit of a difficult time. In the dry we definitely have a good car. In the wet, sometimes it's good, sometimes not good. It's difficult to say what is the clear answer [to that]. We show a really good car in the dry and we definitely we see in the factory many people are working so hard and we see really good performance in the car and so thanks to all the guys working on the car.

Heikki, a lot of rumours going around the paddock at the moment about where you might be going etc. What can you tell us?

Heikki Kovalainen: I think it's the time of the season where you hear a lot of rumours regarding a lot of drivers, and for me nothing has changed at the moment. The only focus is improving our team and our car, and making the best out of what we've got. Then at some point we'll sit down with my management and sit down with Caterham first and then see what we'll do for the future.

You're a previous winner at this circuit. What are you feelings coming into this race?

HK: Pretty similar feelings to any other grand prix. It's too long since I won here. It's just one weekend in the whole championship. Of course, as a Finn this feels a little bit like a home grand prix. We have a lot of people from Finland always turning up here. In that way it is perhaps a warmer feeling through the weekend than some of the races. But apart from that, it's business as usual.

Kimi, presumably you feel the same way about the crowd, but what about the car. Is it progressing? People were talking about it as a winner earlier this season. Is it keeping up that reputation? Is it keeping that performance?

Kimi Räikkönen: Well, it hasn't won any races, so it's not a winner. I mean, we have a good package but for many races we probably haven't got the best out of it in all conditions at all races but that's up to us. We are still pretty happy but of course you want to do better. We wish to win races but it hasn't happened so far, so hopefully we can win some this year. It's not easy and we know that. We keep trying to improve things and learn from the things that we do and we'll see what we can do in the second part [of the season].

Is fourth the best you can do at the moment and is qualifying an emphasis for you?

KR: We had a good speed last weekend, apart from the rain. We couldn't get anything in the rain for some reason. That really put us in a not very good position. If it's a dry weekend… the car has been good in the wet in Silverstone but for some reason not in qualifying in the last race. I think we're finding the place where I want to be with the car and the set-up and things like that and hopefully we can be a bit better here than we were last week.

Fernando, since last weekend, you and Felipe felt the moral obligation to visit earthquake victims very close to the factory at Maranello. Can you tell us of that experience: what you found, what you saw?

Fernando Alonso: yeah, we were visiting some of the camps that still have people there and it's not clear when they will come back home, because some of the cities are still quite damaged and most of the buildings will still need some repair. For sure, it's not an easy situation. A sad feeling a little bit. We tried to give them some support from the Ferrari factory and all the team. When the earthquake arrived everyone cares about these people and they were in the news everyday, but now after a few months or whatever, people tend to forget, so we were just visiting them to give them full support and to wish that everything will become better and better every day and that normality will arrive sooner rather than later.

You've come into this race obviously having won last weekend, you won your first race here and you'll go into the break leading the Championship. Do you see yourself as favourite to win the Championship and, if not, who is?

FA: Well, I think we are in a good position in terms of points that we achieve in the first half of the season, in the first ten races, but we are, as you said, only half. We did ten and there remain another ten important races with the same possibilities for everybody. I think the distance between the top five, top six is not a distance or a gap that is impossible to recover. You just need one good race or two good races and you are up there. So, we need to keep the concentration, try to keep maximising what we have in our hands every weekend – sometimes we know that can be a podium, sometimes maybe it's a fifth position, sometimes a seventh, but we cannot afford to make any mistakes or anything that we will regret. So, we need to keep doing good – some good consistency but in terms of the Championship it's obviously way to early to think and still McLaren, Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes – anyone is in contention at the moment.

Pastor, obviously you won in Barcelona: what has changed, what has happened since then – you really haven't followed that up. What's happened since then.

Pastor Maldonado: Yeah, I think after Barcelona, for whatever reason we didn't consolidate our results. I did a couple of mistakes and then I've been a bit unlucky as well at the same time. We've been working so hard in the team, trying to keep our performance. Maybe in qualifying we did a great job and as I mentioned, for whatever reason we haven't been very strong on races. Now in the second part of the Championship we are looking to recover the points we lost and to every time be strong and the strongest.

What about this circuit? You were very quick in Monaco, there are mid-speed corners just like in Barcelona as well. Is this looking a good circuit for you?

PM: Yeah, I hope so. For sure now the gaps are very close and I hope to have a great car here. It's going to be very important to understand the tyres, to understand and to prepare the car for quali and the race – which is a compromise I think here. And yeah, I love this circuit. It's very technical, very hard mentally and physically and for sure looking forward to have a great result and to be back to the points again with the team.